A Sticker Board?

Sunday, May 6, 2012

After writing the initial post about our idea to create a shared room for the boys, I’ve been meaning to follow-up with a few explanations.  It’s taken me a while to actually write this post because we, Sir Aris and I, have had the flu!  Well, whatever is the actual flu these days, I don’t know, but we had a stomach bug that knocked us out.  This made sitting up, thinking, and taking pictures next to impossible.

This weekend though, we are functioning much better and have gotten much accomplished, aside from the usual soccer games, grocery shopping, and house chores that is: our garden is mostly planted and we enjoyed yestersday’s 80 degrees with a family bike ride for pizza.  We also had time to take some pictures of the current room.

Well, there you have it.

When Aris was 2.5 years old, he proudly marched up to the paint man at Lowe’s and handed him the green paint swatch..and, here we are today! (This picture was actually taken today while Rory was installing curtains, hence the drill in the bed.  Aris does not usually sleep with power tools!)

It is kind of a pistachio green.  We figured it was going to be an ‘okay’ green because the plan was to paint a road and cars on the walls.  A lofty plan for a 7.5 month pregnant women, but I was on a mission.  Each car took me approximately 2 hours, and so, this room is not going to be re-painted anytime soon.

Aris, age 2.5 and proud of his new room (6.09)

But, I am glad to say, at age 5, Aris still likes the cars.  He has, however, outgrown much of the other ‘accessories’ in the room, which led to his requests in the initial post:

1 & 2) A sticker board and a dresser.   Currently, this is what he has:

Most of his clothes are in his dirty laundry right now, so there is nothing actually hanging out of the drawers…but, notice how the drawers still barely close?  These drawers are designated for his pants, shorts, pajamas and socks/undies.  At age 2.5, we could fit what we needed in this small plastic dresser, but now it is a disorganized mess.  He tries to put his stuff away, but gets frustrated because it just doesn’t fit.  He even bundles his winter jammies up and puts them on top because they don’t fit in the open dinosaur drawer.  I did tell him that if we got him a new dresser, he could  not stick stickers all over it.  (Although, I do admit that it kind of looks neat, in some eclectic, artistic way).  This request by me prompted him to ask me for a sticker board…”What’s that?”  I ask.  ”A board for stickers,” he replies.

Genius!  I am not quite sure what the sticker board will be yet, but a piece of wood on the wall is easy enough for me!

3) A better book shelf~The book shelf in it’s current state looks like this:

Egads!   Now, one might think that some simple organization would do the trick, but this book shelf just can’t stay organized!  The tall floppy books don’t fit well and the small fat books don’t fit at all, swinging the book slings backwards…a word of warning if considering the purchase of a similar design.

Anyway, the search has begun to find a less finicky bookshelf, a sticker board, and a real dresser.

Oh, and, recall the power tools on the bed in the earlier photo?  Progress is being made.  Stay tuned!

~Laura

Images: Laura for Monkeysonmyback

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Filling the Gap

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Feeling a little bit harried around here lately.  Just can’t seem to get anything done.  Part of it is the adage of swimming lessons after school and part of it is me sitting at Parent/Teacher conferences for 3.5 hours twice last week.  Needless to say, I have felt a bit absent-minded lately, taking for granted what I used to get accomplished in those after school/after kid bedtime hours.  All of which has been pushed to the am hours, and couple that with the planning of two awesome kids’ (my own) birthday parties.  Yes, I am feeling a bit sidetracked, but it’s all in good fun.

Regardless of my absenteeism, dear husband is on top of it!  Remember this hole in our wall?   The one holding various black boxes and numerous wires…

The final cabinet door was spray painted before our big blizzard last Friday and screwed into place.  Now I just need to organize those darn black boxes, which seem to be multiplying like Gremlins, and all, of which I am told, are VERY important to the technological function  of this house.  And, yes, those pesky wires.  I do have a plan for those.

The easiest thing would be to buy some black speaker fabric and hide it all!  Still, it’s going to be organized, hidden or not…someday, when my attendance is back up.

I think it looks much better.  And, I am liking the geometric designs breaking up that eyesore and the massiveness of our 20 some foot wall.  I still have some plans for this little gap, however, although nicely filled for now.

Have a Great Friday!

~Laura

Images: All Laura for Monkeysonmyback

Love Colorado Winters

winter in colorado art print poster wall decor

JanuaryJonesPrints ~etsy.com

The snow around here has been a great distraction for us.  Mother Nature decided to bless us with the fluffy white stuff and lots of it!  This translates into “SNOW DAY” and mommy staying home and playing!  How fun!  I am not exactly sure how much snow we got, but enough to build snow men, forts and go sledding!  The streets were covered so we pulled Zz down the middle of the road, which he thought was hilarious and giggled all the way!

Snow piles high enough to grab tree branches…

enough to build jumps…

and, enough warm Colorado sun to enjoy a picnic lunch outside!

Like I said the distraction was wonderful.  You may remember my shower curtain dilemma?  Well, said guest has arrived, and there is a shower curtain hung, but it’s not to my liking so I am not sharing it ~ Ha!  That will have to wait.

Instead we, kids and I (once again thanks to blizzard) were able to make a trip to Target (4 miles away) and return with a plethora of organizational gadgets for bath redo.  That was our adventure on Friday.

Yes, sorry, the picture is crooked, but we gathered a tension rod ($4), some bastkets ($25 total for all), and some guest supplies.  This I like.  Organization helps me breathe.  Prior to this, everything was thrown in the vanity, slimy and leaking.  Yuck.  Oh, yes, I know we have a hole in the back of the vanity, but just ignore it. I do.

I decided to share this really old picture that I found in the archives of the bathroom before the first hideous color I painted it.  Look at that ugly wall color that does not at all complement our gray tiles, and the vanity looking oh so sad!

Well, here is a sneak peek:

There are a few touch-ups to be had here and there, but as I mentioned before, Mother Nature dumped a healthy dose distraction on us this weekend.   And, we are still feeling it around here.  Little voices are calling me to “come play in the fort” as I type.  With our warm Colorado sun melting the snow very quickly, the bathroom is just going to have to wait.  More to share soon…

Hope you enjoyed your winter weekend as much as we did!

~Laura

Images: 1) JanuaryJonesPrints @ etsy.com; All others, Laura for Monkeysonmyback.com

Gaps

GAP 1

As I was driving to work the other day, listening to the holiday music station, I heard the cute Christmas Song sung by a toothless child, All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. ” How perfectly fitting!”, I thought, for my oldest, toothless daughter.

Thank goodness she has not created this annoying lisp that supposedly goes along with missing your two front teeth!  I have yet to play her that song, however,  the other day she stepped out of my husband’s car singing, “I’m Sexy and I know it!”  What???!!! Yes.

Well, apparently the volume was turned down so low that only girls age six.five could hear it.  ”What does sexy mean?” she asks my husband.  ”Ask your mom!” he says.  Wonderful.

(Although I think that LMFAO, in all their popularity, has some possible confident building characteristics with their lyrics, I too, leave work – my job teaching middle school children – with that song rampaging though my head.  It is the only song, no exaggeration there, that the kids will choose given a chance to request during PE class.  Is it possible that they may pick up on the, “I WORK OUT!” lyrics instead?)

Anyway, we – daughter and I – agreed that maybe LMFAO should ask their mothers for more fitting words, like attractive, perhaps.   Yes, the conversation ended and my daughter assured me that she would not sing those lyrics in her first grade classroom…although, toothless,  it could be cute!

GAP 2

Unlike the hole in my child’s face, this one is not so cute.  I think its intention was good in some ways: less furniture to sit TV on and thus less furniture to dust.  But really?! There is a hole, technically a shelf, in my wall with a cluster of cables and black boxes.

In my attempt to solve said cluttered gap issue, I looked at this shelf from many angles.  At first, I found the last two low bins at Crate-n-Barrel, when we moved in, to fill in some of the gap.  I have also tried rearranging the black boxes, but no matter which way they sit, this particular arrangement is still very unattractive. I even had a PB design women come to my house and measure every nook and cranny in my family room while toddler Z was screaming (I am sure she loved that!).  Her suggestion was to buy “some sort of console thing” (exact words) to place IN FRONT OF the space.  Yes, in front.

So my brainstorming began. ..

I thought maybe we could just put some doors in front of it to cover it up a bit, but then again, custom doors are expensive and it would be impossible for me to find an exact measurement by chance.  I figured though, if the doors weren’t totally solid, they would not be so hard to build, yet still distracting enough to the eye so that the clutter and cables didn’t keep jumping out at me.

Next step, get help.

I sent my husband this email:

Rory, here is an idea for doors I want under TV.   They could block the clutter and stuff.  Click on link.
This link shows the cuts for the exact same design on the picture wall frame, but you’d have to scale t down.
The remote can go in there.
L:)
Our basement "Ana White" Roomhttp://ana-white.com/2010/10/squared2-headboard-queen

Notice the email does not have many words?  Yes, and typos.  And, it mentions something he uses often; the remote. My method to get him hooked…
I let it sit in his inbox for a while and then asked if he saw the email with the cool design.  ”What email?” he asked.  Hmmm…. anyway, he finally got motivated to attempt this project, with a little wife pressure.
Here is a beginning stage shot.  He used MDF strips and just scaled it down.  Making each corner was a bit tedious.  The outer junctions are screwed and glued and the inner pieces (each tiny one is separate) is just glued with wood glue.
We are making progress, but  it  isn’t quite finished.  Here you can get a sense of what it may look like.  Quite a nice distraction, I think.
Still needs a sanding and some slight adjustments, oh, and a nice fresh coat of white spray paint.  But it’s taking shape and it looks SO much better, even only half done!
I may even put some sort of fabric behind the door to hide the boxes and cords completely.  I have not decided yet.  We should have some finished product pictures  soon to share.
As for the other gap mentioned above, there are no teeth growing in there just yet.  Although she doesn’t care anything about her missing teeth and has some other ideas of  ’all she wants for Christmas‘, we will keep you posted on both processes.
Have a good weekend!
~Laura
I don’t know this women,  Ana White from Ana-White.com, but she is the ultimate definition of homemaker! She is awesome and very talented.  So, far, we have used her free plans to make our West Elm style bed frame, a desk, and now these doors.  I get no perks telling you about her site, but I just like sharing really neat ideas.  
Images: 1,2 & 4-7) Laura for Monkeysonmyback.com, 3) Ana-White.com brag blog

PB Inspiration

Schoolhouse Desk

A while back I spotted this  photo on the Pottery Barn kids website.  I am always searching their website for new room layouts and design ideas for kids’ stuff.  Knowing at the time that we had to brace ourselves for me heading back to the working world, I was looking for ways to organize the kids daily schedules.  Sure we have a ‘kitchen command center’, but it is more at the eye level and understanding of adults.  My four-year old still does not know how many days before the weekend, but I knew he was going to feel very lost when he was suddenly uprooted from his 2 years of Mom Time and thrust back into ‘Preschool/Nanny Time.’ 

Anyway, I got inspired to make the organization chart in the photo above.

I found the letters shown above at Michael’s, with a coupon, for a $4 total.  Purchased two cork boards from Target (brand Board Dudes for $6).  Oh, and a bunch of rulers for .40 a piece.  I scaled the finished product down a lot compared to the picture because I didn’t have the wall space and because I have a toddler who likes all things shiny!  The boards I bought were 17×23. (click the image for more info.)

The Board Dudes Corkboard with Frame (17x23").Opens in a new window

And, then went to the H Depot and bought some spray paint.  I went with the colors from the kids spring photos, blue and orange, and continued the theme on the boards.

I had the glue from another project.  It works great and dries clear.

And, Viola! It took me about 30 minutes to make the boards, not including the dry time and the drive time (to get all the stuff).  But time well spent!  The boards are hung outside the kids’ bedrooms in the hallway.  They are just high enough for my oldest two to see.  My daughter checks her Physical Education days and my son is most interested in whether or not he gets to stay home with our nanny and go to the library (Wednesdays).

So, I am very pleased with how they turned out.  They need an update though, from time to time, as activities change.  (We look very unbusy, as I see this, hmm?  Why doesn’t it feel that way!?)

The tags I used were simply the backs of colored index cards with graphics printed off from clip-art, taped,  and then laminated.  And, yes, they are color coded for my kids as well.  Jada chose the pink cards and Aris chose the blue; go figure.  When little Z gets big enough, we’ll add another color to the organization chart, too.

This was a quick project, but very necessary for our morning function, it seems.

Here are some parting shots!

Happy Friday!

Images: 1) Potterybarnkids.com  2) Target.com  3-8) Laura for Monkeysonmyback.com

So Much Beautiful Crap!

I have learned a few things during my extended stay at home after child number three, one of them being that you can fool your house clean.  Huh?  Really.  It’s true.  Dust yes, but not that much.  Vacuum yes, but not too often (unless you let your kids eat anywhere and you have pets).  The secret is called, “The Get It Off the Floor Choir.”  I realized this last year as my eldest two kids were attending Kindergarten and Pre-school and they were bringing home so much beautiful crap!  Piles and pages and papers of all assorted colors with glue gobs and feathers and glitter and dried noodles, from squiggles to swirls to their first straight line to writing journals and egg-carton busses….it came home.

First it sat.  I looked at it.  It was explained to me.  I smiled, “That’s very nice honey…I love the way you blended your colors here!”  Really.  Now don’t get me wrong.  Art is a very important part of development, as is writing,  and I was very impressed with the creativity of the teachers, but I just didn’t know what to do with all of it.  It  piled up on the kitchen table, on the kitchen island, on the kitchen desk next to the island, and on the office desk nowhere near the kitchen.  Now most of this beautiful stuff was very important and needed to be kept, so my husband and I told our kindergartener and preschooler to find a place to put those important pieces or they may never be seen again…and, more piles were created under beds, on book shelves and in the closets of the kids’ rooms!

I was going insane.  The piles of papers were building cobwebs in my brain and when I looked around our house I couldn’t finish a thought…too much clutter!

Around this time,  I started to notice two things: 1)on occasion my husband thanked me for cleaning the house even though I hadn’t, and 2) this was mostly after a quick round of “Get It Off the Floor Choir.”  Simply, everything put in its place.  Toys in bins, clothes hung up, shoes neatly lined up, rugs straightened, throws folded over the arm of the chair…nothing on the floor.  (Side note, house cleaning to me involves scrubbing, not picking up.)

So, I knew the same could be accomplished for our counter tops which held the smatterings of artsy collectibles.  I needed to devise a plan to get the extra papers, notes, and the kids’ crap off the counters, but still allow for them to see it so they felt its value.  (Honestly, some of it was really good.)

So I pieced together a few simple ideas:

Madison Corkboard I loved the juxtaposition of the neat and tidy kitchen with the messy kids wall art.  It’s messy, but it’s contained, and off the counters! But, I wanted something that could make a little bit more of a statement…so I came to the idea of these framed corkboards.

And, then there was this inspirational picture:

I love the way the kid’s art is framed neatly, once again, showing how special it is.  After all, I was doing no justice to my children’s egos by having piles of papers which no one could see.  So, we (kids and I) began our little project, gathering our most favorite pieces.  And, yes, much was recycled, but much was saved.  Some painted pieces, some glued, some colorful and some not so much color.  But we are all much happier with the outcome.

If you made it this far in the post, you deserve to see a picture or two of our accomplishments!  First is the kids’ art board, which hangs in the play room right off the kitchen.  The art here can be switched out easily.  We made this board by simply buying a roll of cork from Hobby Lobby, some thin MDF board from the De-Pot, and attaching wall trim to make a frame.

And, below are the six art pieces we’ve framed so far (plan on two more), which hang just past the Foyer.  They can’t be missed by quests entering our home!  The kids are so proud of the framed art and I love the way it looks.  The frames are from Wal-Mart (Canopy brand), in case you were wondering.

These days we still get piles from time to time, but we can come to an agreement easily as to where our collection of stuff should go; on the art board or in the recycle bin.  Ahhh….

Images:  1) Younghouselove.com  2) Ballarddesigns.com 3) Janell Beals

4-6) Laura @ Monkeysonmyback